Question about 10-round "compliant" magazines for handguns.

[rikilii]

It's obvious to me how rifle mags are limited to 10 rounds, just make them shorter.

But how are pistol magazines, which have to be a certain length depending on the size of the pistol grip, limited to 10 rounds (for markets that have banned 11+ round magazines)?

Is the bottom of the magazine solid, or plugged with something? Is the follower thicker?

[TheLom]

basically it's a thicker follower and/or base plate.

[God's Country]

Same way they make them now for NY. etc

[rikilii]

basically it's a thicker follower and/or base plate.

So if you put the follower from, for instance, a Glock 26 standard mag into a "compliant" Glock 17 mag, would you basically end up with a standard the Glock 17?

In case anyone's wondering, I'm just trying to figure out if a 11+ -round magazine ban is a pointless and as easily circumvented as it seems, because (other than the obvious reasons) any dirtbag can buy a bunch of magazines, swap a few parts around, and end up with banned magazines to go do their dirty work.

[Pector55]

So if you put the follower from, for instance, a Glock 26 standard mag into a "compliant" Glock 17 mag, would you basically end up with a standard the Glock 17?

In case anyone's wondering, I'm just trying to figure out if a 11+ -round magazine ban is a pointless and as easily circumvented as it seems, because (other than the obvious reasons) any dirtbag can buy a bunch of magazines, swap a few parts around, and end up with banned magazines to go do their dirty work.

<sigh> No, they can't because it's illegal and if you say something is illegal nobody can do it. Honest!

[MostlyHarmless]

Not that simple.

Let's take the fairly standard Glock 17 as an example.

The 17 round version is a double stack magazine, which means that the rounds stack up inside left, right, left in a zig-zag pattern. The spring fills the entire width and only gets a little narrower at the top to fit into the follower. You could of course make the follower longer and the spring shorter to reduce the capacity. But this would just as easily be converted back to a 17 round one.

The 10 round magazine of the exact same outer dimensions (the NY legal version) instead has thicker outer walls, making it is a single stack magazine. Due to the thicker walls, this one cannot be converted to higher capacity.

Which unfortunately also means that you won't find cheap conversion kits (spring and follower) to convert the two dozen mags you have into legal ones. Because if they go for a 10 round limit, I won't expect "converted" magazines to fall within their definition of "limited". These people are insane, not stupid.


Jan

[dkf]

With the Glock full size mags it looks to me like they just make the 10 rounders a single stack and change the follower. I'd say most manufacturers just take up extra space in the mag some way to limit capacity. I only ever own the Glock high capacity mags because I think the low capacity mags are stupid. Hopefully I will never need to buy mags limited to 10 rounds.

http://glockparts.com/Detail.aspx?PROD=7179&CAT=713
http://glockparts.com/Detail.aspx?PROD=6830&CAT=713

[TheLom]

So if you put the follower from, for instance, a Glock 26 standard mag into a "compliant" Glock 17 mag, would you basically end up with a standard the Glock 17?

In case anyone's wondering, I'm just trying to figure out if a 11+ -round magazine ban is a pointless and as easily circumvented as it seems, because (other than the obvious reasons) any dirtbag can buy a bunch of magazines, swap a few parts around, and end up with banned magazines to go do their dirty work.

They are engineered so that you cannot do that.

[twency]

So if you put the follower from, for instance, a Glock 26 standard mag into a "compliant" Glock 17 mag, would you basically end up with a standard the Glock 17?

In case anyone's wondering, I'm just trying to figure out if a 11+ -round magazine ban is a pointless and as easily circumvented as it seems, because (other than the obvious reasons) any dirtbag can buy a bunch of magazines, swap a few parts around, and end up with banned magazines to go do their dirty work.

Take this with a heap of salt, but near the tail end of the federal AWB I recall there being discussion about using 10-round .40S&W mags in 9mm Glocks to have more than ten rounds loaded. (11 or 12, I forget how many could actually be made to fit and feed.)

Supposedly someone had obtained an opinion from the ATF that doing so wasn't a violation of AWB because the magazines were legal to start with and hadn't been illegally modified, despite being used in a manner which had the effect of circumventing the AWB.

I have no idea if this is or was accurate, I was a total neophyte to guns at the time and may have misunderstood, or may be misremembering now.

[shortthrow50]

I dont think there is such thing as a 10 round mag for my uzi.